Quintana Roo

Other people build houses on land. Richart Sowa, a carpenter and former British rock-band guitarist, has designed and constructed a whole island. This self-sustaining environment for living, about 20 meters (66 feet) in diameter, floats just off Isla Mujeres, Mexico, on 115,000 empty plastic one-liter soda bottles anchored by 11 concrete-filled car tires. When...

It is estimated that the average worldwide per-capita use of paper is 110 pounds per person per year. On Isla Mujeres, Quintana Roo, a laid-back Caribbean island off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula—best known for good snorkeling and for sipping a slow cerveza under a palapa—Emilio Sosa Medina recycles ten times his annual...